★★★★★ 5
Moroni sans i, Mormon sans 2nd m
Format: Paperback
This is carefully researched and well-written book. I felt that I needed to read it, I wanted to read it, after reading Jon Krakauer's 'Under the Banner of Heaven' After all, the flds religion of today is essentially the original religion created by Joseph Smith, who was a premier snake oil salesman. If you've ever wondered where religions come from then here we have the history of one that formed and grew on American soil early in the 19th century in the soil of rebellion tilled by the American Revolution. Brodie covers the influence on Smith and others of the atmosphere of revivalism. One can in any case ask: how can anyone take the Book of Mormon seriously, but then how can anyone take the Book of Mark seriously? What is clear to me is that Mormonism is not Christianity, Smith used parts of Christianity as a takeoff point and revised them ala Moroni. This is not new in the history of religion, Mohammed revised and used parts of the Old Testament as a takeoff point for writing the Koran. The tale of Noah and the flood in the Old Testament was preceded by an earlier Summerian flood tale. Smith wrote in the era before the ideas of evolution of animals and evolution of the earth had come into being; he apparently lifted the tale of the American Indians' origin as Jewish from another book ms. The speculation that they are descended from one of two lost tribes of Israel who came to America is built centrally into the Book of Mormon Then he added that they were visited in America by Jesus, who descended from heaven (another archaic notion). Well, there was no effective way to challenge such hokeyness in Smith's day. We now know from DNA testing that the tale of the Indians' origin as Jewish holds no water. Nor does the rest of the book of moroni. Brodie's history is invaluable because it comes as close as you can get to describing the formation of a mass religion from the grass roots. Next time two starry-eyed, shiny-faced, tie-and-suited young men arrive at your doorstep on bicycles, you might consider offering them a good physics and/or biology book as antidote to the delusions that they're peddling,
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Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2018
